Huawei’s NBN ban needs review, says Turnbull

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull ... “The fact that a company is state-owned or has a foreign government shareholder in it” should not preclude it from making investments in Australia.
Photo: Glenn Hunt

The ban on Chinese company Huawei being involved in the national broadband network would be reviewed under a Coalition government, opposition communications spokesman
Malcolm Turnbull
said.

Mr Turnbull said he noted that Huawei was being used in the rollout of broadband in Britain and many people would be surprised that Australia would take a different approach.

“Obviously they’ve [Britain] got very similar security concerns that we do," he said. “Having said that, we have not been privy to the security intelligence advice that the government has had. We will review that decision in the light of all the advice in the event of us coming into government. That’s as far as I can go."

The comments came after the Financial Review revealed former prime minister John Howard’s call to welcome Chinese investment in Australia. That contrasted with Opposition Leader
Tony Abbott
’s comments in China recently that it would rarely be in Australia’s national interest to allow a foreign government to control an Australian business.

Mr Turnbull played down the policy split in the Coalition over Chinese investment, saying the opposition was not “proposing any ban on government-owned or government-influenced companies buying assets".

“The fact that a company is state-owned, or has a foreign government shareholding in it, does not preclude it from being an investor in Australia," he said, pointing to substantial investments by Singaporean, French and Canadian government-backed entities in Australia.

“There are so many examples from so many different countries you really would be trying to lock the stable door after the horse had bolted. I think we need foreign investment, we should welcome it, and any suggestion that the Coalition does not do that is simply wrong." He said the Coalition’s discussion paper on the issue demonstrated that position.

“We have Mr Abbott going to Beijing to sort of shut it down, we have Mr Howard saying we should open it up. I think we in government have got the balance about right,’’ he said.

Mr Rudd defended Labor’s handling of foreign investment decisions.

“We have approved the overwhelming majority of Chinese foreign investment applications but we also always do so in Australia’s national interest."

Mr Fraser said he did not fear Chinese investment and that “there should be one set of rules that apply to all. Chinese investment is small compared to the US, UK [and] Europe".

Asked on Tuesday about Mr Howard’s comments on Chinese investment, Mr Abbott said: “I welcome foreign investment, I absolutely welcome foreign investment but it has got to be strictly in Australia’s national interest."

Treasurer
Wayne Swan
said the Coalition’s foreign investment policy was a “shambles" that was being driven by the National Party.

“It’s a dog’s breakfast, but it’s also dangerous. The comment that Mr Abbott made in China about foreign investment was particularly damaging to our country because the comments he made were interpreted by many as Mr Abbott having a foreign investment policy that was deliberately aimed at China,’’ he said.

“Australia never distinguishes in any of our decisions between one country over another."